By: Nayia Faxio-Douglas | Staff Columnist
President Trump has been in office for only seven months, and he has still yet to make an even bigger name for himself than he had before.
On Aug. 22, Trump held a rally in Phoenix in light of the riots in Charlottesville, Virginia, where many of his supporters, both present and at home, came to show their support. Trump promised a lot for America during his campaign, but many changes have still yet to come. He has little time left to prove himself as a competent leader before the end of the year, having made no real accomplishments so far.
Instead of the president of the United States focusing on real-world issues, he consistently decides to address problems that almost always only apply to his supporters and not the general public (those he is supposed to be supporting).
Even with the support that he does have from the American people, his unpopularity is seeming to “trump” said supporters (pun intended). President Trump is seen by many to not take his job as seriously as he should, and that is due to the outlandish actions and statements he constantly makes, such as what was said during the Phoenix rally.
The President began his rally with welcoming statements but soon turned to his traditional tactics of ignoring the problem and blaming others for the issues within the United States. To be more specific, he addressed the violent accounts of riots that occurred recently in Charlottesville.
As he was speaking, a member of the audience began to boo, and the crowd reacted. Trump then stated, “Don’t worry, it’s only a single voice and not a very powerful voice.”
Yet, as much as an influence Trump is supposed to be on America, he gave more attention to that one boo in the crowd than he did to the actual riots of Charlottesville.
Trump told the crowd what he has stated before, that he loves all people, and based on the events that occurred, he took it one step further, getting specific by stating, “We must rediscover the bonds and loyalty that bring us together as Americans.”
However, these bonds of loyalty and togetherness are entirely missing from the actions of Trump at this rally following the extreme attacks in Charlottesville. They are also absent in all the moves he has made in the past seven months of his presidency.
For example, consider him deporting working people from specific racial backgrounds and banning them from returning to America for no good reason. Is this not going against his claim of loving everyone?
In the case of the riots, Trump’s face, statements and motives were used to promote and encourage groups of white supremacists to stand for something that is not a representation of our country. If these individuals can use our president as an example to help support their dangerous beliefs, then there is an obvious problem and divide within the nation, and Trump is nothing but a factor that encourages the divide.
Although he did state at the rally that he acknowledged the participants in the Charlottesville riots as racists and advocators of violence, he nullified that when he again began to criticize the media’s portrayal of himself, comparing his statements to those of Obama’s when it came to Islamic extremists.
Instead of fully addressing a detrimental issue within the U.S. today, Trump chose to focus on unimportant things that he could use to attack other people who actually did take action, using those individuals to stray away from the things he did not do and the views and points that he did not make.
Trump’s insincere actions completely reflect this, that what he says and does never comes from the heart, and this is finally starting to reflect in both the media and his own party.
We are living in a time when our president, though his lack of action, is forcing members of his own party to revoke their support and take measures of their own in order to fight for the actions he has still not taken. Trump has impacted America significantly less than most presidents before, and that, along with many of the appalling and surprising things he says and does, speaks measures on who we actually elected. Trump may blame the media for a lot of his actions, but these rallies show that the media really does not alter everything he says. The media simply reflects and shows the man who we actually elected to lead.
